Page 79 of Love Story
Together.
•••
AFTER A NIGHTat Los Angeles International Airport, Andi flew to Montana and drove to the boys ranch. She arrived just after ten the next morning, and parked in a lot overlooking a football field.
Immediately she spotted him.
Cody Coleman, standing in the midst of a group of football players, instructing them on the game. Andi climbed out of her car and watched him. The air around her was cool, much more so than in Louisiana or Los Angeles. Mountains ringed the area where the school was situated, and everywhere she looked the view was breathtaking.
This was where Cody belonged, here with kids who needed him most. She watched him, his strong muscled arms and the handsome shape of his face. He couldn’t see her, didn’t know she was there.
Andi slipped back in her car and took her journal from her purse. Then she wrote Cody what might be her last letter ever. Because there was no guarantee he’d forgive her. He may have moved on and decided he needed to be single.
Or he might have decided he didn’t want her, after all. Since she hadn’t been willing to hear his side of the story. Andi’s heart hurt at the reminder of what she’d done, how she had sent him away. But now there was no time to waste, so she started at the top of the page.
Dear Cody,
I’m here in Montana. It doesn’t matter how I found you, just that I did.
Cody, I’m so sorry for how I treated you. I should’ve listened to your explanation, taken your words to heart. I know now that this is about yourPTSD. I’m so sorry about that. Sorry about what you went through in Afghanistan and what you are still going through now.
My heart hurts for you.
I’m including the address of my hotel. It’s a few miles away on the edge of a lake. My flight doesn’t leave until tomorrow afternoon. So if you’re willing to forgive me, if you’re willing to tell me everything that happened, I’ll be there. Helping you through your healing would be a privilege, Cody. Never a burden.
Anyway, I’ll be there. Come find me if you still want to talk. If not, I understand. After how I treated you I would understand if you let me leave tomorrow without coming by. I’m more sorry than you’ll ever know.
I love you... I’ll be waiting.
Love, Andi
The campus was sprawled out, so Andi drove to the front and took the letter to the main office. She asked for an envelope and slipped the note inside. Then she sealed it and wrote Cody’s name across it.
“Could you see that Cody Coleman gets this, please?” She handed it to the office manager. “It’s very important.”
The woman seemed to recognize that this was something out of the ordinary. She smiled at Andi. “I’ll make sure.”
Andi drove to her hotel and took Max outside on his leash. The woods were thick around the edge of the water—very different from any lake she’d ever seen. And so very beautiful. Andi sat with Max on a fallen tree not far from her hotel room patio. She took a deep breath and tried not to worry. Whatever happened next, it had to be Cody’s choice.
Once and for all.
•••
CODY READ THEletter three times before he left the parking lot. Each time he felt his heart flood with a sort of joy he’d never known. She had found him. She’d come back to him! Andi Ellison was only a few miles away!
He could hardly wait to see her, to hold her in his arms and know that the impossible had happened. Andi was ready to give him another chance.
The only one they would ever need.
He wanted to drive straight to her hotel, but he had to do something first. He had to stop off at a different hotel, the one where he was staying until his apartment would be ready next week. He moved as quickly as he could.
Andi was waiting for him
At his hotel, Cody ran in. Riley met him at the door and Cody gave him a quick break outside. Once he was back in the hotel room, Cody stopped to pet him. “I’ll be back soon, boy. Wait till you hear what happened!”
Then he rushed to his suitcase to get something very important. Something he kept with him as a reminder. A reason to pray for Andi and their future. Proof that he meant what he’d told her: He’d wait as long as it took for her to work through her fears.
Cody slipped the small velvet box into his jeans pocket.
